Soviets blockade West Berlin - Jun 24, 1948 - HISTORY.com Soviets blockade West Berlin Publisher A+E Networks One of the most dramatic standoffs in the history of the Cold War begins as the Soviet Union blocks all road and rail traffic to and from West Berlin. The blockade turned out to be a terrible diplomatic move by the Soviets, while the United States emerged from the confrontation with renewed purpose and confidence. Following World War II, Germany was divided into occupation zones. The United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and, eventually, France, were given specific zones to occupy in which they were to accept the surrender of Nazi forces and restore order. The Soviet Union occupied most of eastern Germany, while the other Allied nations occupied western Germany. The German capital of Berlin was similarly divided into four zones of occupation. Almost immediately, differences between the United States and the Soviet Union surfaced. The Soviets sought huge reparations from Germany in the form of money, industrial equipment, and resources. The Russians also made it clear that they desired a neutral and disarmed Germany. The United States saw things in quite a different way. American officials believed that the economic recovery of Western Europe was dependent on a strong, reunified Germany.

They also felt that only a rearmed Germany could stand as a bulwark against Soviet expansion into Western Europe. In May 1946, the Americans stopped reparations shipments from their zone to the Soviets. In December, the British and Americans combined their zones; the French joined some months later. The Soviets viewed these actions as a threat and issued more demands for a say in the economic future of Germany. On June 22, 1948, negotiations between the Soviets, Americans, and British broke down. On June 24, Soviet forces blocked the roads and railroad lines into West Berlin. American officials were furious, and some in the administration of President Harry S. Truman argued that the time for diplomacy with the Soviets was over. For a few tense days, the world waited to see whether the United States and Soviet Union would come to blows. In West Berlin, panic began to set in as its population worried about shortages of food, water, and medical aid. The United States response came just two days after the Soviets began their blockade. A massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin was undertaken in what was to become one of the greatest logistical efforts in history. For the Soviets, the escapade quickly became a diplomatic embarrassment.

Russia looked like an international bully that was trying to starve men, women, and children into submission. And the successful American airlift merely served to accentuate the technological superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union. On May 12, 1949, the Soviets officially ended the blockade. Related Videos The Berlin blockade The Berlin blockade A famous image of the Red Army erecting the Soviet flag over Berlin in 1945 As World War II was ending, the US, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed that each should occupy part of the divided Germany. This occupation would be coordinated and administered from one location, Berlin, which itself would be segmented into occupied zones. The Soviet Red Army was the first to arrive in Berlin in April 1945, prompting Hitler’s suicide and the surrender of the German high command. Russian generals refused to allow Allied troops into the capital for two months. During this time, Soviet soldiers engaged in an orgy of murder, looting and sexual violence (as many as 400,000 Berlin girls and women were subjected to rape). American and British military personnel were permitted to enter the German capital in July, when they began setting up their discrete zones in Berlin’s west and south-west.

Weeks later they were joined by the French, who occupied a small quadrant in the north-west. The Soviets controlled almost all of Berlin’s eastern half. The occupied sectors of post-war Berlin in the late 1940s The Allied occupation forces were shocked by the devastation in Berlin. The city had almost no means of sustaining itself. Berlin produced only two per cent of its food requirements; the rest had to be shipped in from rural areas. Food supplies were exhausted and thousands of Berliners were starving. Months of heavy bombing had destroyed buildings, factories, homes and critical infrastructure. All of Berlin’s 87 sewage networks had been destroyed, spoiling drinking water supplies and spreading diseases like typhus and dysentery. Hospitals, railways and roads had been decimated by bombing and artillery. Many had long since fled the city, fearing the advancing Soviet troops, causing Berlin’s population to drop from 4.6 million in 1944 to 2.8 million in mid-1945. “The Western counter-blockade of eastern Germany… hurt the eastern occupation zone and Soviet standing in Germany more than the Soviet blockade hurt the western zones.

Eastern Germany lacked sufficient quantities of essential industrial material like coal and steel, and there was no equivalent to the airlift that could supply these necessary commodities. Francois Seydoux de Clausonne, a French government advisor on Germany, conjectured that the Berlin Blockade was worse than a failure – it was a political embarrassment to the Soviet Union.” Roger R. Miller, historian The Allied-controlled sections of Berlin were enclaves, located in the heart of the Soviet occupation zone of greater Germany. The Americans, British or French could not move men and supplies in or out of Berlin without crossing Soviet-occupied territory or airspace. This was not a concern initially, while there was considerable goodwill in Soviet-Allied relations. In 1945 Red Army commander Marshal Zhukov granted the Allies permission to use one road, one rail and one aerial route across the Soviet zone. In later negotiations the Allies were granted three twenty-mile corridors into Berlin. But these agreements were intended to be temporary. When relations began to deteriorate, the Allied presence in Berlin became irksome for the Soviet leader, who had wrongly predicted the Americans would withdraw from Berlin after a year or two.

‘Perhaps we can kick them out’ In 1948 Stalin met with Wilhelm Pieck, his German henchman in the Soviet zone and the future president of East Germany. Pieck complained to Stalin that the presence of the Americans, British and French in Berlin threatened to disrupt elections scheduled for 1949. “Let’s make a joint effort then,” Stalin told him, “and perhaps we can kick them out”. On Stalin’s orders, the Soviet regime in Germany began measures to frustrate the Allies out of Berlin. Soviet troops began stopping Allied trains to check passengers and cargo, while Russian planes began entering Allied airspace over Berlin to menace planes flying in or out of the city. In April 1948 relations worsened after a Soviet fighter ‘buzzed’ and collided with a British commercial passenger plane, killing all fourteen people onboard. In June the Allies issued a new currency, the deutschmark, while the Soviets – preferring to prevent economic recovery in Germany – gave orders that the deutschmark not be accepted within its zone. A day later, Soviet forces began implementing a full-scale blockade of Allied zones in west Berlin.

The Russians closed the land corridors, halting Allied road and rail shipments then sending them back to their originating zones. They shut down thoroughfares and services into west Berlin, closing roads, cutting telephone lines and blocking water supplies. Power lines into west Berlin from electrical stations in the Soviet zone were disconnected. By late June, the Allied sectors of Berlin were almost completely blockaded; only the air routes remained open. Many in the American government now considered that remaining in Berlin was untenable. The Americans had only 9,000 troops stationed in Berlin and another 110,000 in Bizonia, compared to more than one million Russians in the Soviet zone, so military options were ruled out. Berlin’s allied zones had only five weeks’ of food stores and six weeks’ of coal remaining as of the end of June. Given that the USSR had signed an agreement guaranteeing three flight paths into Berlin from Bizonia, an airlift of food, coal, gasoline and machinery was the only means of re-supply.

But an airlift to keep Berlin fed and fuelled would be a monumental task, given that it would need to move 5,000 tons of cargo per day – and the largest American plane carried barely four tons. It would require thousands of flights each week and cost millions of dollars. There was also the risk that the Soviets would breach their agreement of 1945 and attack cargo planes. Yet despite these difficulties, the Berlin airlift was authorised and began in the final week of June. Some significant facts about the airlift include: ‘Flights to freedom’ Allied planes queue for loading and take-off during the Berlin airlift Some significant facts about the airlift include: The Berlin airlift was code-named Operation Vittles and was overseen by US Air Force General Curtis Le May. The operation would use almost 700 planes and 12,000 personnel from the US, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

A study by the Allied command determined that the minimum daily ration needed for the two million people of west Berlin required 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, five tons of real milk for children, 144 tons of vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese – a total of around 1,540 tons. In addition to food, the airlift shifted more than 1.5 million tons of coal and four million litres of gasoline. Among the more unusual items carried in the airlift: gigantic rolls of newsprint for Allied Berlin’s newspapers and two million seedlings to replace trees destroyed during the war. There were more than 277,000 separate flights, the first on June 26th. In total Allied planes flew more than 92 million miles – almost the distance required to travel to Mars and back.

Allied commanders routinely shortened launch timings, safety and inspection procedures in order to fly more cargo runs. One general aimed to achieve 1,440 Berlin landings per day – one for each minute of the day – a figure that was finally achieved in August 1948. The airlift was a challenge for pilots and aircrew. Not only were crews required to battle fatigue by flying several sorties each day, conditions were often extremely difficult. Berlin’s airports were prone to fog and low cloud, while the approach to Templehof airport in the US zone required pilots to fly between high-rise apartment buildings. Planes were often loaded to or just over their cargo limit, which made them notoriously difficult to take off and handle. Twenty-five Allied planes crashed during the airlift, killing 70 pilots and crew. The airlift began slowly, averaging just 90 tons of supplies a day in its first week. Following the arrival of new planes, these figures rose to 1000 tons per day in the second week. The record single-day tonnage was set in a 24-hour period during Easter 1949, when Allied planes transported just under 13,000 tons of supplies.

The citizens of west Berlin offered to assist with the unloading of landed planes, in return for extra food rations. As the airlift progressed, these volunteer crews became very fast (at one point, twelve men unloaded a ten-ton cargo of coal in under six minutes). This allowed for fast turnarounds, as some Allied planes spent barely fifteen minutes on the tarmac in Berlin before returning to Bizonia for another cargo run. Moscow relents A British cartoon depicting Stalin’s frustration at the airlift The pro-Soviet press in eastern Berlin mocked the Allied airlift as a futile exercise, suggesting that it would fail within days or weeks. This prediction proved wrong: in fact the Berlin airlift, much like the Marshall Plan, was an important propaganda victory for the US. One poster produced by a participating aircraft company hailed milk as the “new weapon of democracy”, declaring that 2.5 million Germans were enjoying a better life due to air transport alone. The success of the airlift proved embarrassing for the Soviet Union, which in April 1949 proposed negotiations to end the blockade of Berlin.

The Soviets agreed to reopen land access to the city, and at 12.01am on May 13th the first Allied train in 11 months rolled into Soviet-occupied East Germany, reaching Berlin shortly before dawn. The airlifts continued for another nine weeks, in order to build up a surplus of supplies, before they finally ceased in late July. 1. After 1945 the German capital Berlin was divided into zones, occupied by the US, Britain, France and the USSR. 2. In 1948 Stalin and the East German government resolved to force the Allies out of Berlin by denying access. 3. As Stalin tried to starve them out of Berlin, the West held firm and decided to supply its sectors by air. 4. The Berlin airlift was the largest air supply campaign ever attempted, with more than 550,000 different flights. 5. The airlift proved embarrassing for the USSR, which in April 1949 agreed to negotiations for the re-opening of Berlin. Rail access was eventually granted in May 1949 and supply flights continued until late July 1949. © Alpha History.

Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use . This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation: J. Llewellyn et al, “The Berlin blockade”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], What Caused The Berlin Blockade What Caused The Berlin Blockade, 1948ï¿½49? Summary Primarily, the Berlin Blockade was an episode in the Cold War ï¿½ Stalin was taking over eastern Europe by salami tactics, and America had just adopted the Truman Doctrine. Secondly, America and Russia had different Aims for Germany. Stalin wanted to destroy Germany, and was stripping East Germany of its wealth. Britain and America wanted to rebuild Germanyï¿½s industry ï¿½ in January 1947, they joined their two zones together into Bizonia. On 31 March 1948, Congress voted for Marshall Aid. Stalin (rightly) saw this as an attempt to undermine Russian influence in eastern Europe. The Russians started stopping and searching all road and rail traffic into Berlin.

Finally, on 23 June Britain and America introduced a new currency into Bizonia. The next day the Russians stopped all road and rail traffic into Berlin. The Americans thought Stalin was trying to force them out of Berlin. Stalin claimed the new currency was an attempt to wreck the East German economy. The main cause of the Berlin Blockade was the Cold War, which was just getting started. Stalin was taking over eastern Europe by salami tactics and Czechoslovakia had just turned Communist (March 1948). On the other side, the USA had just adopted the Truman Doctrine to ï¿½containï¿½ the USSR. The Berlin Blockade was just another event in this ï¿½Cold Warï¿½ between the superpowers. The second reason for the Berlin Blockade was that the USA and the USSR had different Aims for what they wanted to do to Germany. The USSR had already disagreed with Britain and the USA at Potsdam (July 1945) about this. Stalin wanted to destroy Germany, and the USSR had been stripping East Germany of its wealth and machinery.

On the other side, Britain and the USA wanted to rebuild Germanyï¿½s industry to become a wealthy trading partner (so as not to repeat the mistake of Versailles). This difference in aims was the underlying cause of the Berlin Blockade. The policy of the USA and the USSR towards Germany was so different that conflict was bound to break out there sooner or later. These were the two causes which underlay the conflict in Berlin in 1948. Then there were three events which actually led to Stalin blocking off the borders. Firstly, in January 1947, Britain and the USA joined their two zones together. They called the new zone Bizonia (ï¿½two zonesï¿½). The Russians realised that Britain and the USA were beginning to create a new, strong Germany, and they were angry. Then, on 31 March 1948, Congress voted for Marshall Aid. Stalin (rightly) saw this as an attempt to undermine Russian influence in eastern Europe. Immediately, the Russians started stopping and searching all road and rail traffic into Berlin.

Finally, on 1 June, America and Britain announced that they wanted to create the new country of West Germany; and on 23 June they introduced a new currency into ï¿½Bizoniaï¿½ and western Berlin. People in eastern Europe began to change all their money into the new western currency, which they thought was worth more. The next day the Russians stopped all road and rail traffic into Berlin. The Americans claimed that Stalin was trying to force the USA out of Berlin, and that the blockade was Russian empire-building in eastern Europe. Stalin, however, claimed that ï¿½ by introducing the new currency ï¿½ the USA and Britain had been trying to wreck the east German economy. And he said that the airlift was ï¿½simply a propaganda move intended to make the cold war worse.ï¿½ U.S. begins Berlin Airlift - Jun 26, 1948 - HISTORY.com U.S. begins Berlin Airlift Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.

When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though located within the Soviet zone of occupation, was also split into four sectors, with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets the eastern. In June 1948, Josef Stalin’s government attempted to consolidate control of the city by cutting off all land and sea routes to West Berlin in order to pressure the Allies to evacuate. As a result, beginning on June 24 the western section of Berlin and its 2 million people were deprived of food, heating fuel and other crucial supplies. Though some in U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s administration called for a direct military response to this aggressive Soviet move, Truman worried such a response would trigger another world war. Instead, he authorized a massive airlift operation under the control of General Lucius D. Clay, the American-appointed military governor of Germany. The first planes took off from England and western Germany on June 26, loaded with food, clothing, water, medicine and fuel.

By July 15, an average of 2,500 tons of supplies was being flown into the city every day. The massive scale of the airlift made it a huge logistical challenge and at times a great risk. With planes landing at Tempelhof Airport every four minutes, round the clock, pilots were being asked to fly two or more round-trip flights every day, in World War II planes that were sometimes in need of repair. The Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949, having earned the scorn of the international community for subjecting innocent men, women and children to hardship and starvation. The airlift–called die Luftbrucke or “the air bridge” in German–continued until September 1949, for a total delivery of more than 1.5 million tons of supplies and a total cost of over $224 million. When it ended, the eastern section of Berlin was absorbed into Soviet East Germany, while West Berlin remained a separate territory with its own government and close ties to West Germany. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, formed a dividing line between East and West Berlin.

Its destruction in 1989 presaged the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and marked the end of an era and the reemergence of Berlin as the capital of a new, unified German nation. Related Videos American Experience . Race for the Superbomb . Berlin Blockade | PBS People & Events Berlin Blockade The blockade of Berlin was the first serious crisis of the Cold War. By 1948, the Western allies began moving towards consolidating their occupation zones in Western Germany into a single independent German state. As part of that process, the U.S., France and Britain took steps to reform the currency in the parts of Germany they occupied, in order to promote economic recovery. The new currency, over which the Soviets would have no control, was also to become legal tender in the Western sectors of Berlin. The USSR, which had been invaded twice by Germany, was alarmed at the prospect of a strong Germany. The Soviet leadership responded to the Western allies' currency reforms by installing their own new currency in East Berlin just 24 hours before the West mark was to go into circulation. They also imposed a blockade on West Berlin, cutting off all land and rail routes into the Western sectors.

Lucius Clay, the military governor of the American zone of occupied Germany wrote: "When the order of the Soviet Military Administration to close all rail traffic from the western zones went into effect at 6:00AM on the morning of June 24, 1948, the three western sectors of Berlin, with a civilian population of about 2,500,000 people, became dependent on reserve stocks and airlift replacements. It was one of the most ruthless efforts in modern times to use mass starvation for political coercion... " Initially the Soviet authorities thought the plan was working. "Our control and restrictive measures have dealt a strong blow at the prestige of the Americans and British in Germany. " The Soviet authorities reported. But the Western Allies responded immediately by mounting a tremendous airlift. Under the leadership of General Curtis LeMay, ten-ton capacity C-54s began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall the airlift, code-named "Operation Vittles "and often referred to as "LeMay's feed and coal company ," was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day.

Not only did the blockade turn out to be totally ineffective, it ended up backfiring on the Soviets in other ways. It provoked genuine fears of war in the West. And instead of preventing the establishment of an independent West Germany, it accelerated the Allies plans to set up the state. It also hastened the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an American-Western European military alliance. In May 1949, Stalin had little choice but to lift the blockade. BBC - GCSE Bitesize: Summary of the Berlin crisis Next In this Revision Bite you will learn about the causes of the Berlin Blockade crisis of 1948 - how Stalin was eventually forced to abandon the plan that could have cost the lives of thousands living in divided Berlin or started another war. Summary of the Berlin crisis How Germany was divided in 1945 In 1945, the Allies decided to split Germany into four zones of occupation. The capital, Berlin, was also split into four zones. The USSR took huge reparations from its zone in eastern Germany, but Britain, France and America tried to improve conditions in their zones.

In June 1948, Britain, France and America united their zones into a new country, West Germany. On 23 June 1948, they introduced a new currency, which they said would help trade. The next day, Stalin cut off all rail and road links to west Berlin - the Berlin Blockade. The west saw this as an attempt to starve Berlin into surrender, so they decided to supply west Berlin by air. The Berlin Blockade lasted 318 days. During this time, 275,000 planes transported 1.5 million tons of supplies and a plane landed every three minutes at Berlin's Templehof airport. On 12 May 1949, Stalin abandoned the blockade. Page: Berlin Blockade Archives - Walled In Berlin Monday, May 16th, 2016 The Berlin Airlift Memorial at Tempelhof Airport was dedicated in 1951 to honor those man and women who lost their lives in the Berlin Airlift. The 65-foot-tall concrete sculpture is shaped like an arched fork with three prongs at the top.

Each prong symbolizes an air corridor used by Allied planes to airlift food, fuel and medicine from West Germany to West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49. The three prongs face west toward the former American, British and French occupation zones. Every year a wreath is laid down at the Berlin Airlift Memorial, which Berliners lovingly call the Hungerkralle (hunger claw). Two similar, but smaller, memorials were erected near the former West German air bases in Frankfurt Main (1985) and Celle (1988). Their prongs face toward Berlin. Berlin Airlift Memorial at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. The inscription at its base reads “They gave their lives for the freedom of Berlin in service of the Berlin Airlift 1948/49”, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015, Why the Berlin Airlift? In 1948/49, when the Soviet Union blocked all roads and waterways to West Berlin in order to starve the city, Tempelhof Airport became the city’s lifeline.

Allied planes supplied the city for a period of 11 months with food, fuel, and everything else that was necessary for daily life. Planes landed every few minutes. Berlin Airlift Fatalities As much as the Berlin Airlift was a feat of logistics, accidents did happen. There were 101 fatalities, which included 39 British and 31 American servicemen. Most of the accidents resulted from hazardous weather conditions or mechanical failures. The remaining fatalities were comprised of civilians who perished on the ground during operational support or lost their lives when aircraft accidents destroyed their homes. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the Berlin Airlift.

Commemorating those men and women who lost their lives due to the airlift, an inscription at the foot of the Berlin Airlift Memorial reads, “They gave their lives for the freedom of Berlin in service of the Berlin Airlift 1948/1949.” For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, “Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of Gail Halvorsen – Berlin Airlift hero Monday, May 9th, 2016 Retired US Air Force Colonel Gail Halvorsen was a First Lieutenant when he was told to help airlift flour, dried eggs, dried potatoes, dried milk and coal into West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49. The purpose of the mission was to keep West Berlin’s 2.2 million population from starvation. The Berlin Airlift was the biggest humanitarian aid mission in history, and Colonel Halvorsen remains one of its unforgotten heroes. The children of Berlin called him Uncle Wiggly Wings. Why was Berlin blockaded?

Following Word War II, Germany was divided into four zones. American, British, French and Soviet forces occupied the country. Berlin, the capital, was also split into four sectors, and West Berlin ended up 100 miles inside the Soviet occupation zone. By 1948, the Soviets tried to get the three Western occupation powers to withdraw from Berlin. To hasten the process, the Soviets blocked all land and water access to West Berlin. Now, trucks, trains and barges were no longer able to supply West Berlin with food and coal. In an unprecedented logistical feat, the three Western Allies decided to supply West Berlin from the air in what is commonly known as the Berlin Airlift. For eleven months, supply planes landed every few minutes at West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. On 12 May 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade. How Gail Halvorsen became a Berlin Airlift hero In a 2007 essay, the now 95-year-old Colonel Gail Halvorsen explains why the children of Berlin knew him as “Uncle Wiggly Wings.” In 1948, the beginning of the blockade, the U.S.

Air Force ordered him to fly life-sustaining essentials into West Berlin. Day and night he flew a C-54 Skymaster filled with staples into West Berlin. He flew in thunderstorms, fog, ice and snow. Off duty, he slept in the loft of a farmer’s old barn. From his cockpit Gail Halvorsen could see the moonscape that had once been the grand capital of Germany. Many buildings were mere shells. Rubble everywhere. One day in July, when he was off duty, Colonel Gail Halvorsen walked to the end of the runway to film aircraft landings. A group of about 30 children stood behind the barbed wire fence. He walked over to the children, fully expecting them to beg for sweets as he had previously experienced in other parts of the world. But these children didn’t beg. They appeared so grateful for the flour he delivered that they didn’t think it proper to ask for more. Impressed, Gail Halvorsen reached into his pocket for some gum. But all he found were two sticks of Wrigley’s Doublemint – two sticks for 30 children. He broke them in half and passed them through the barbed wire.

Now the children surprised him even more. They broke the gum into as many pieces as possible and shared them. They then tore the wrappers into pieces as well and handed them to the children who had gone without gum. The latter stuck their noses into the wrappers to savor the minty smell. Without fighting over the gum, every little face was lit with glee. Colonel Gail Halvorsen was so moved by the children’s restraint that he promised to drop more gum the next day so that every child could enjoy a piece. When the children asked how they would recognize his plane, he said he would wiggle the aircraft’s wings. Then First Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen surrounded by Berlin children, photo courtesy of archive.defense.gov The following day, Gail Halvorsen made good on his promise. He fashioned three little parachutes from handkerchiefs, attached packages of sweets to them and dropped the small canopies from his plane just prior to landing. From then on he continued to drop candy from his plane, even in the Soviet sector. His generous deed caught on.

By the end of the Berlin Airlift, Colonel Gail Halvorsen along with many other pilots, had dropped over 20 tons of chocolate, gum and candy over Berlin. In 1974, Uncle Wiggly Wings was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit in Berlin for his role in the Berlin Airlift. For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, “Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of Berlin Airlift – unprecedented feat Monday, May 2nd, 2016 In response to the Berlin Blockade the Western Allies (United States, Great Britain and France) organized the Berlin Airlift. The miles flown to supply Berlin from the air between 24 June 1948 and 12 May 1949 equaled almost the distance between the earth and the sun. Berlin Airlift Memorial at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. The inscription at its base reads “They gave their lives for the freedom of Berlin in service of the Berlin Airlift 1948/49”, photo © J.

Elke Ertle, 2015 The Berlin Blockade meant eminent starvation When the Soviets severed all land and water connections between West Germany and West Berlin in June 1948, there were only 35 days worth of food and 45 days worth of coal left in the city. The power generated provided only 2.5 hours worth of electricity during a 24-hour period. Starvation loomed. Convinced that the United States, Great Britain and France had little choice but to surrender West Berlin, the Soviet military administration celebrated. But their bash was premature. To try or not to try the Berlin Airlift? The Soviet Blockade had convinced the three Western Allies that remaining in Berlin was essential to stemming the spread of Communism. Since all surface routes to West Berlin were blockaded, the only alternative was to supply West Berlin by air. There were three previously negotiated air corridors. But the task was enormous. Never before had a population this large (2 million) been supplied from the air. Estimates indicated that about 4,000 to 5,000 tons per day would have to be airlifted to supply the city.

And those were summer figures when there was no need for heat. During the winter months the total tonnage required to be airlifted would be closer to 6,000 tons per day. Nonetheless, the American and British military agreed to try a joint operation. The U.S. part of the operation was named Operation Vittles; the British one was dubbed Operation Plainfare. In September 1948, the Australian military joined with Operation Pelican. The Berlin Airlift begins On 25 June 1948, only one day after the start of the Berlin Blockade, the American military commander, General Lucius D. Clay, gave the order to launch Operation Vittles. The next day, 32 planes hauled 80 tons of milk, flour and medicine to West Berlin. The first British aircraft flew on 28 June. During the first week, the airlift averaged only ninety tons a day, but by the second week it reached 1000 tons. Then Major General William H. Tunner was put in charge of the operation. He quickly doubled the tonnage and hours flown. Supply planes eventually flew in five altitudes, starting at 500 feet.

Every three minutes a plane landed in West Berlin. He replaced the unloading crews unloading almost entirely with local people. Typical aircraft flown during the Berlin Airlift, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015 The Berlin Airlift ends Although the Berlin Blockade ended on 12 May 1949, the Berlin Airlift continued until 30 September. The Western Allies stocked up on food, fuel, and other supplies, just in case the Soviets might resume the blockade. Between June 1948 and September 1949, the Berlin Airlift delivered more than 2.3 million tons of cargo on over 275,000 flights. Nearly two-thirds of the cargo was coal. Pilots came from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, “Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of Berlin Blockade and the Cold War Monday, April 25th, 2016 Until the Berlin Blockade began in 1948, the United States had no intention of occupying West Berlin beyond the establishment of a new West German government in 1949. But the subsequent Berlin Blockade and ensuing Cold War kept the U.S. in West Berlin until 1994. An important omission in the Potsdam Agreement In the summer of 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the three victorious powers (the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union) signed the Potsdam Agreement. This document laid down the legal framework for the occupation of Germany and re-affirmed rules previously hammered out at the Yalta Conference. Specifically, the Potsdam Agreement addressed the terms of the military occupation, division, territorial changes, reparations and reconstruction of Germany. Accordingly, Germany was divided into three zones.

Berlin, the capital, was also divided into three sectors, despite the fact that the city was located 100 miles inside Soviet occupation territory. Three air corridors from West Germany to West Berlin had been negotiated in the Potsdam Agreement, but rail, road and water access were never discussed. This omission was to be the basis for endless frustration. Quadripartite administration of Germany and Berlin The Allies established the Allied Control Council to execute resolutions concerning Germany and the Allied Kommandatura to implement resolutions concerning Berlin. When France joined the Allies as the fourth occupation power, its territories of Germany and Berlin were carved from the American and British occupation zones and sectors. The four Allies agreed to govern their respective zone and sector as they deemed fit, but unanimous agreement would be required in matters that concerned all of Germany or all of Berlin. Events leading up to the Berlin Blockade By 1948, the relationship between the four powers had gone sour. The three western powers wanted to help rebuilt Germany to stabilize the European continent, with the hope that it would prevent Communism from spreading. The Soviets preferred a weak Germany and an unstable continent, with the hope that it would provide fertile ground for the spread of Communism.

It did not take long before the Soviets regretted having agreed to share the city of Berlin with the Western Allies. Now they wanted nothing more than for the three western powers to get out of West Berlin. Quadripartite control became unworkable. On 20 March 1948, the Allied Control Council met for the last time. On 16 June 1948, the Allied Kommandatura assembled for the last time. The Soviet delegation walked out for good. After the Soviets had left the table, the three Western Allies made decisions concerning their occupation territories without Soviet input. On 21 June 1948, the Western Allies introduced a new currency in the western zones and sectors. They introduced the Deutsche Mark. The Soviets, who had not been consulted, objected vehemently. On 22 June 1948, the Soviets also introduced their own new currency in the eastern zone. From Berlin Blockade to Berlin Airlift On 24 June 1948, The Soviets blocked all rail, road and water connections between West Germany and West Berlin. They offered to lift the blockade only if the Western Allies agreed to withdraw the Deutsche Mark from West Berlin. The Western Allies refused.

The Soviets stopped supplying agricultural goods to West Berlin and cut off the electricity generated in the Soviet zone and relied upon by the three western zones of Berlin. There was only enough food to last for 35 days and enough coal to last for 45 days. With surface traffic between West Germany and West Berlin severed and in the absence of negotiated ground access rights to the city, the only remaining possibility was to try to supply West Berlin from the air. On June 26, 1948, American military commander Lucius D. Clay had the first planes in the air. The Berlin Airlift began and the Cold War heated up. The Berlin Blockade lasted from 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949. For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, “Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of Lucius D. Clay – Berlin’s defender of freedom Monday, April 18th, 2016 General Lucius D. Clay died in 1978. At his gravesite at West Point you’ll see a memorial.

It was erected by the people of West Berlin and reads: Wir danken dem Bewahrer unserer Freiheit (We thank the defender of our freedom). Those words were spoken from the heart because General Clay literally saved West Berlin from starvation during the Berlin Blockade. I was only three years old when the blockade started in 1948, but I am keenly aware that I would not write about it today, had it not been for the actions of General Lucius D. Clay. Years later, when President John F. Kennedy dispatched Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson together with Lucius D. Clay to Berlin to shore up the spirits of Berliners during the Berlin Wall crisis, it was Clay whom we went to see. It was Clay whom we trusted. General Lucius D. Clay and the Berlin Blockade So how did the Berlin Blockade come about and what did General Lucius D. Clay do to earn the respect and the hearts of West Berlin’s population? Following World War II, Germany and the city of Berlin were divided into four sectors and occupied by British, French, American, and Soviet forces.

On 23 June 1948, in an attempt to revive the German economy, the three western Allies issued a new currency, the Deutsche Mark. The Soviets vehemently opposed this action and in return blockaded all land and water access routes to West Berlin. With this move, they hoped to force the Western Allies take back the new currency and subsequently hand West Berlin to the Soviets. By blocking all deliveries of food and electricity they hoped to starve West Berliners into submitting to Soviet control. At that time, Clay was military governor of the American section of occupied Germany. He decided to supply Berlin by air. Lucius D. Clay gave orders even before having received authorization from President Harry S. Truman. Within three days of the start of the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift started. It was an incredible logistical feat because never before had a population of 2 million been supplied from the air. But with the help of a man by the name of William H. Tunner, Clay fine-tuned the Airlift until planes landed every three minutes, twenty-four hours a day.

Over the course of the next eleven months, General Clay directed some 277,800 flights, carrying 2.3 million tons of food and fuel to West Berlin. . The Berlin Airlift lasted 324 days. When the Soviets realized that the Western Allies could supply West Berlin indefinitely, they threw in the towel. The Berlin Blockade ended on 12 May 1949. It was Clay’s decisiveness and tenacity that saved Berliners from starvation. General Lucius D. Clay (1898 to 1978) Who was this man, General Lucius D. Clay? Born in 1898 in Georgia to U.S. Senator Alexander Stephens Clay and Sarah Francis, Lucius DuBignon Clay was the youngest of six children. He graduated from West Point in 1918, became a military engineer and held various civil and military engineering posts during the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, he earned the reputation of being a hard-charging, chain-smoking, tireless and decisive worker who could turn chaos into order.

From 1947 to 1949, Clay was commander in chief of the U.S. Force in Europe and the military governor of war-torn Germany’s American Zone. General Lucius D. Clay also directed “A Report on Germany,” which became one of the source documents for The Marshall Plan. After retiring as a four-star general in 1949, Clay went into the private sector and became a successful business executive. Over time, he served on 18 corporate boards and became the principal architect of our Interstate highway system. For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of Currywurst – German Cousin of the Hot Dog Thursday, June 26th, 2014 Currywurst is a German national Schnell-Imbiss, a fast food. It is the German cousin of the American hot dog. In the beginning, Currywurst was an inexpensive, filling meal purchased from street vendors. Today, it is also available in many upscale restaurants from Germany to New York. What is Currywurst?

Currywurst is a grilled sausage that is cut into slices (when I grew up, it was split lengthwise) and dowsed with a sauce. The secret lies in the sauce, which in essence consists of stewed tomatoes, curry, and spices. Depending on the vendor, the sauce may be flavored with sweet Indian curry, powdered mustard, hot chili, lemongrass, paprika, or chopped onions. Currywurst success story Made from grilled pork or beef, this quick meal originated in the bare-bones kitchen of a Berlin woman during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift of 1948/1949. Herta Heuwer was a hands-on woman. When Berlin lay in shambles at the end of World War II, Heuwer did her part by becoming a Truemmerfrau (rubble woman). She became one of the many women who are credited with putting Germany’s war-torn cities back together by separating reusable building materials from tons of useless debris so that reconstruction could begin. .

Herta Heuwer became a Truemmerfrau who helped to put Berlin’s district of Charlottenburg–the district I grew up in–back on its feet in 1946. A couple of years later, during the Berlin Blockade, she bartered with her British occupiers for a few spices. Condiments were largely unattainable in those days. After she hadÂ traded spirits for a little Worcester sauce and ketchup, she experimented with these spices at home and ended up with a sauce that she poured over boiled pork sausage. The dish caught on with the working class. Soon Heuwer opened a street side stand and sold Currywurst with a slice of whole grain bread on the side. Her business took off. Six years later, her sales amounted to 10,000 servings a week. After patenting her sauce under the name of “Chillup,” Heuwer opened a fast food restaurant at Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse 57 in Charlottenburg, not far from where I grew up. Ms. Heuwer never disclosed her original recipe and never sold out to mass-production food companies. Herta Heuwer plaque installed at Kaiser-Friedrich-Str.

57 at the corner of Kantstrasse, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015 Currywurst consumption today The Deutsche Currywurst Museum estimates that 800 million Currywursts are consumed in Germany every year, 70 million in Berlin alone. Even the Volkswagen car manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg produces 3.5 million Currywursts per year in its own butcher shop. For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of . Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Berlin Blockade The first point where war between the two superpowers was possible. ï¿½Boojiï¿½, a contributor to The USSR had already disagreed with Britain and the USA at Potsdam (July 1945) about what should be done with Germany. Germany had been split into four zones .

There had been particular disagreement about reparations: Britain and America had wanted Germany to recover economically, but the Russians had gained the right to take 10% of the industrial equipment of western Germany, and as whatever they wanted from their own zone in eastern Germany: Berlin, in Russia's zone, was also split into 4 zones. But Berlin was entirely within - and surrounded by - the Russian zone. Source D [The Americans had introduced a new currency into Berlin.] Old money flooded into the Soviet Zone. Some restrictions were placed on links between Berlin and western zones, but the Soviet side was ready to supply food to all Berlin. Yet every day 380 American planes flew into Berlin. It was simply a propaganda move intended to make the cold war worse. From a Russian history book. Source A Britain and America tried to restore German prosperity in their sectors, but the Russians systematically looted their zone.

This Low cartoon of October 1946 shows Bevin (British foreign minister) and Byrnes (America) trying to get the lorry of a 'united Germany' going, while the Russian foreign minister Molotov sits smugly on his motorbike, having stolen the wheels - 'Pity you fellows can't get your part going. I fixed mine OK', he is saying.. Click here for the interpretation Source C This cartoon by the British cartoonist Illingworth appeared in the Daily Mail on 9 September 1948. Stalin has blocked the mousehole, and toys with a mouse labelled 'Berliners', whilst the other 'western powers' scuttle around in alarm. Click here for the interpretation What happened? The American Army wanted to fight its way into Berlin ï¿½ that would have caused a war. Instead, Truman decided to supply Berlin by air. The situation was bad at first, but things got better as the blockade went on. On 12 May 1949, Stalin re-opened the borders. Airlift Facts The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months).

In the winter of 1948ï¿½49 Berliners lived on dried potatoes, powdered eggs and cans of meat. They had four hours of electricity a day. The airlift was codenamed 'operation Vittles'; the first flight was on 26 June 1948. The Soviet authorities offered to provide West Berlin with essential supplies - this offer was rejected. 275,000 flights carried in 1ï¿½ million tons of supplies. A plane landed every 3 mins. On 16 April 1949, 1400 flights brought in 13,000 tons of supplies in one day ï¿½ Berlin only needed 6,000 tons a day to survive. Some pilots dropped chocolate and sweets. The airlift continued until 30 September 1949, in order to build up a reserve of supplies. The USA stationed B-29 bombers (which could carry an atomic bomb) in Britain. The American airmen were regarded as heroes Source D This cartoon of 14 July 1948 by EH Shepard for the British magazine Punch shows Stalin watching as storks fly coal and food into Berlin.

Click here for the interpretation Activity: 2. Working as a whole class, draw a spidergram to show all the reasons why the Berlin blockade failed. 3. What were the results of the Berlin Blockade. Source E The crisis was planned in Washington behind a smokescreen of anti-Soviet propaganda... The self-blockade of the Western powers hit the West Berlin population with harshness. The people were freezing and starving. In the Spring of 1949 the USA was forced to yield From a Russian history book. Source F We demonstrated to the people of Europe that we would act resolutely, when their freedom was threatened. Politically it brought the people of Western Europe closer to us. President Truman, speaking in 1949. Source G Neither side gained anything. The USSR had not gained control of Berlin. The West had no guarantees that land communications would not be cut again. Above all confrontation made both sides even more stubborn. Historian Jack Watson writing in 1984.

Question: In response to a Soviet blockade, June 26th, 1948, saw the Western Allies begin an airlift to what city?
Answer: Berlin